


what about this face?

by starryflower



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: jack is in prison because he wants to break her out, revolution of the daleks, rotd spoilers? ish, yes i've been watching the episode every day since it came out and what about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:53:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28610148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starryflower/pseuds/starryflower
Summary: He heard the rumours some time ago. He knew the risk of them not being true, but he had to try. After all, what’re a few years in the lifespan of an immortal? And he wasn’t willing to risk his friend needing him and him not coming to get them.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36





	what about this face?

He heard the rumours some time ago. He knew the risk of them not being true, but he had to try. After all, what’re a few years in the lifespan of an immortal? And he wasn’t willing to risk his friend needing him and him not coming to get them.  
When he heard the heavy footsteps behind him, he put his hands up with a smirk on his face. This was going to be fun.

\- 

The prison uniform was uncomfortable and the colour didn’t fit his complexion at all, but no one replied to his request to have a different colour. Might’ve been because he committed quite a few crimes, but it still hit him, because he was counting on his charm to fix the problem. It didn’t. 

It had only been a few days but he was already getting bored. How was he supposed to know if they were in and he had no idea how they looked like. He remembered when their companion, Graham, said that the Doctor goes by 'she'. As much as he liked the twist, it made his life more difficult. No idea how she looked like, no idea if she was even in the same prison. If she even was in a prison. He tried to think positively, although he couldn’t do much in that itchy uniform that made him want to crawl out of his skin. Still, he got up when the light told him to and made his way to the cages for his daily workout. 

He loathed it with his whole being and cursed the Doctor for getting into messes he had to get them out of. It was typical, really, the Doctor did something and Jack came running like a lost puppy. He came running and didn’t get a thank you in return and he kept on wondering what did he do wrong to end up like this. 

His thoughts kept him occupied and when the red light appeared again, he barely even noticed. He slumped his shoulders, keeping his head low. He got himself into prison for no reason, the Doctor wasn’t there, he was sure of it. His mind kept coming back to the break-out ball (as he liked to call it,) that was hidden in his cell, next to his vortex manipulator, waiting for the chance to get used. 

“Give it a few more days, maybe she’ll turn up,” he murmured to himself quietly as the cell doors closed behind him. 

Another night in solitude, he thought, as he rested on the uncomfortable thing that could barely pass as a bed. Another night to think about all the things that he had done, all the things that he did wrong. 

If the Doctor was in fact locked up in there with him… Jack couldn’t finish the thought. He had to break her out, for her own sake. 

\- 

He thought that he saw her. Well, he did think that every time he saw someone that looked humanoid. He tried to move places a lot, he tried to get to her. His fellow prisoners started to become a blur, the monsters around his cage kept changing almost daily. As he made another round around the cage, he looked up to see an Ood that looked almost rabid. Was that Ood always there or did he move again? 

The worst thing was sneaking around his vortex manipulator. He could almost hear the Doctor nagging him, the words “cheap and nasty time travel” coming out of her mouth almost as an instinct to seeing the tool. She better be grateful, he smirked as he made another round. 

That was new. 

He looked at a few guards that were trying to drag a tiny blonde. Her hair was messy and matted, the uniform seemed too big for her, the sleeves were so long that they covered even her fingertips. She looked as if the uniform had swallowed her and she was swimming in it. She wouldn’t seem that interesting to Jack if it weren’t for the guards that held her up; he could see her struggling to keep her feet on the ground while trying not to trip over her uniform. 

“How many times do I have to explain myself? I did not try to eat the cage… well maybe I did, but there’s no need for all of this.” 

She tried to remain calm, but her words were a bit slurred, probably a result of the shock she must’ve gotten from the cage if she did in fact try to eat it. Jack rolled his eyes over her antics, there was no way in hell that this girl made it into… 

Oh. 

\- 

He had moved a few more times, now determined more than ever. She was here, the Doctor was here and she was a petite blonde. At least now he had some type of clue. He would find her and he would get her out. That was a promise. 

His evenings usually involved some type of planning before he fell asleep, knowing he needed all the strength and courage he could gather if this was going to work. That evening, however, he got a weird feeling. The cell seemed unusually quiet. Well, it was always quiet, the most prominent sounds he got were commands from the lights and the flow of his thoughts as he took into account every possible turnout of his escape plan. 

The unsettling quiet was disturbed as he heard muffled sounds from his neighbour up above, almost as if they were crying. The sound annoyed him, interrupting his attempts to not overthink every possible moment. He got up on the bed and loudly banged on the ceiling of his cell, almost ready to yell in frustration, when his neighbour stopped in their tracks. 

And it was quiet again. 

\- 

He felt like giving up. Moving cells were starting to become even more stressful and it took all of his energy, making him fall asleep immediately after lying down on the uncomfortable stone. He was about to yell for his neighbour to shut up when he heard it. 

“Bedtime story, Doctor?” 

She sounded broken. He could almost taste the tears he knew she wanted to cry, he wanted to hold her close and make all the pain go away. He was so close he could almost touch her, wishful thinking getting the best of him. Without any plan whatsoever, he got up and knocked on the wall. 

“ – were perfectly normal.” She stopped. 

He could almost hear her gentle footsteps as she made her way to the wall. Four quiet knocks, knocks that were so delicate and unsure he could cry. He could hear her hold her breath as she waited for an answer. 

“Who’s there?” 

Her voice was quiet and breathy, and something got caught in Jack’s throat. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. He closed his eyes in pain as he realised he had no idea what to say or do. So he stood there, as still as possible, as quietly as possible. He tried to stop himself from thinking so loudy, hoping she wouldn’t know it was him. 

He could feel her lingering, waiting in anticipation for an answer she wouldn’t get, at least not yet. 

“Stay strong, people are waiting for you.” 

Only when he was sure she got back to bed did he let out the breath that he was holding. It was cruel, but he didn’t know what else to do. She was counting on him, she just didn’t know it yet. It was when he heard quiet sobs from the cell next to him that he put two and two together. He shut his eyes so hard that it hurt and covered his ears as he tried to get that soft sound that was overflowing with pain and feelings and words that were threatening to get spoken out of his head. 

“Stay strong,” he whispered to her before sleep consumed him, “just a few more hours.” 

\- 

He couldn’t help but smirk when he saw her. Of course, it was her, the one that tried to eat the cage, getting lost in her uniform, standing on her tiptoes to look the silence in the eye. 

“I forgot you were here,” she said and he could almost see the faint smile on her lips. 

His words almost betrayed him and his heart skipped a beat as he opened his mouth and said the words he was sure would start something brilliant. 

“What about this face?”

**Author's Note:**

> heya yes i'm obsessed with rotd so i wrote this little thing because why not. hope y'all are safe


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